eBay Faces $3.8bn Patent Lawsuit

Online auction site eBay is facing a $3.8 billion lawsuit for alleged patent infringement, brought by US companyby XPRT Ventures. XPRT claims that eBay subsidiary PayPal knowingly included technology covered by an XPRT e-commerce technology patent into a patent application of its own, filed in 2003.

According to an article on CNET, the lawsuit, which has been filed in the Delaware federal district court, states that XPRT had shared the technology with PayPal. The technology was covered by six patents filed by XPRT.

The lawsuit alleges that PayPal went on to include details of the technology in a 2003 patent application of its own, entitled 'Method and System to Automate Payment for a Commerce Transaction'. The lawsuit filed by XPRT also refers to other eBay-owned companies including BillMeLater, Shopping.com, and StubHub.

In a statement released by XPRT's lawyers, Kelley Drye and Warren, the company stated: “eBay incorporated such inventive concepts and ideas into its auction payment process during current California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's tenure as eBay's CEO. eBay's unauthorized incorporation was a misuse of inventors' confidential and proprietary material.”